LONG BEACH — As news broke that the Supreme Court would take up the issue of gay marriage in California, there was confusion and some deflation in the gay community.

However, according to at least one legal scholar, there could be a big win at the end of the legal rainbow.

Most supporters of gay marriage had hoped the high court would pass on considering an appeal to a lower court ruling that banned Propostion 8, the state ballot measure that prohibited gay marriages.

Had the Supreme Court done that, it would have opened the doors for the state to begin issuing marriage to same-sex couples as early as Monday.

That didn't happen.

Instead, under a stay order, the marriages will not be allowed until the Supreme Court rules sometime next year.

"We're back to the waiting game," said Porter Gilberg, administrative director of the Gay and Lesbian Center of Greater Long Beach.

Most supporters of same sex marriages believe there are solid Constitutional grounds and hoped that if the Supreme Court were to take up Proposition 8, it would also take up the larger national issue of cases pending against the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law that defines marriage as being between and man and woman.

"We generally hope the Supreme Court also rules in the same way (as the appeals court) and stands on the right side for civil rights," Gilberg said.

Trying to find something positive to take from the ruling, Ron Sylvester, who chairs the board of directors at the Gay and Lesbian Center of Greater Long Beach, said, "A win in the Supreme Court would be a bigger win for the country."

That could come from a second case the Supreme Court will review.

In that case Edith Schlain Windsor contested estate taxes she was required to pay after her same-sex spouse died, taxes not charged to the survivor in a marriage between a man and woman.

That case could raise arguments on the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 federal law denying benefits to same-sex spouses.

"I think it's more likely than not that that case will get to the merits of (the Defense of Marriage Act)," said Douglas NeJaime, Associate Professor of Law at the Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

NeJaime also says that it's also likely the Supreme Court could find the role of the legislation in the case unconstitutional.

The decision to hear the cases encouraged the Rev. Susan Russell of All Saints Church in Pasadena.

"I could not be more thrilled and encouraged today, we here at All Saints Church we have long been on the forefront of equality in all ways, shapes and forms, but to have today the Supreme Court decide to take not one but two cases on marriage equality is yet another sign that we as a nation are ready to turn a corner," she said.

"I would not predict what the court would do and obviously a negative decision would be a setback for equality, but I truly believe when we look at what is happening in this country, in this last election, at the willingness of people to continue to move this country forward, ... I really see this as another step in that continuum," Russell said. "I'm both hopeful and confident that in the end justice will prevail and I'm counting on the Supreme Court to be part of that process."